We’ve all ready mentioned it a few times this season, so it’s high time for us to show you. We discuss blanch and freeze preservation a lot around here. Though we’re well practiced in practically every preservation method out there, this one is our hands down favorite.
For background, blanching is the process of putting food into boiling water for a specified period of time. Once that time is up, the food is removed and immediately placed into ice cold water. This quickly arrests the blanching process, preventing the food from being cooked. Blanching is not cooking! From here, the food is air dried and then frozen.
We do this process for a fairly large majority of our preservation efforts. Freezing food is very compatible with our northern environment, given that we don’t have to pay a penny to keep our outdoor freezers running throughout the winter. It’s capable of very long term storage, so long as you blanch the food first!
The science behind this method deals with what’s called the enzymatic process, or the “stuff” that causes organics to break down and spoil. Blanching your food stops the enzymatic process in the food, thereby giving you long term storage potential. Without blanching, the enzymatic process is merely slowed down by the freezer’s cold temperatures.
We generally say you can get a year or so out of blanched and frozen food, as long as its kept frozen. This easily gets us to the next growing season. However, it is rendered “safe” for pretty much an indefinite period of time with this process, as long as its kept frozen. If you don’t blanch foods first, you’re looking at about 3-4 months of storage before you start to see the enzymatic process break your foods down.
Time-wise, this is pretty much the fastest preservation method we know of. Compared to things like canning, dehydration, freeze drying and others, we can put up many pounds of food in an hour or so. It’s also really easy to switch between foods, for example we did broccoli and beans in the same session.
This preservation method requires very few (if any) specialized tools. You need bowls, a large stock pot, some large spoons and some towels to dry your prepared foods on. Quality of life things we also use? A propane burner to make it fast, an 8 quart strainer and kitchen miscellany like silicon grabbers. We’ve also learned to keep our setup “tight” to minimize our movements.
This preservation process is virtually identical across most kinds of foods, there’s only a few exceptions to keep track of. The only thing that really changes is how long you blanch the food for, which varies based on the type of food and sometimes the size or preparation. Otherwise, most foods are treated the same.
Also, we aren’t making this stuff up. It’s straight out of the cooperative extension handbooks. Specifically, the University of Minnesota has been a pioneer on this preservation method. We have a much more extensive article on the subject, with source links, which you’ll find down in the comments!
Yeah, this preservation method isn’t the most sexy in the world. But, due to its compatibility with our lifestyle and the relative speed at which we can preserve our harvests, it’s a winner of a method. We use it a lot and there’s very few things you can’t preserve this way!
